The Energon Pub

Has anybody heard of this?

Apparently in 1977, at some place called the Big Ear Center at Ohio State U (Big Ear, I think, is owned by SETI--The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), scientists received a spike in a narrowband radio signal.

What they do at Big Ear is listen for radio signals from aliens, to put it bluntly. And they got what they think could be one in 1977, and it lasted something like 75 seconds. All it was was a surge in their radio signals, no alien words or Na-nu na-nu, just a surge. I think their radio antennae (Big Ear had two in 1977; now, it's gone to make way for a golf course) were rotating, and they caught the spike for the full duration that their first antenna was pointing at it. By the time the second one came around three minutes later, the signal was gone. So they can't corroborate it. But for the last 30 years, they've been trying to figure out what else it could be and the only explanation they can come up with is actual alien contact.

20 or so years before, two scientists published what they think would be the most likely conditions for an alien signal. They said it would be on radio since it's cheap on energy and travels at the speed of light for an incredible distance, and they said it would come between frequency 1420.356 and 1420.456 MHz, which is some range that has to do with hydrogen (they picked hydrogen because it's the most common element). And that's exactly what this signal did.

A problem is that, if it was an alien signal, why didn't they repeat it? We haven't heard anything since, not even three minutes later. Also, they looked at where the signal was coming from and there's nothing there. No planet or anything. Maybe something was there when the signal was sent?

Makes you wonder.

It could have been a very very very old signal. Which would mean that who ever or what ever sent it has moved away and the signal took like hundreds of years to come to earth, but I don't know how long a radio signal can travel so I might be wrong.

Who knows the sender of the signal might have been clocked from view and was there as they looked.

What's up with that Alien documentary they wanted to release you know the one we saw the screen shot of a real alien peeking true a window?

Dead Metal wrote:It could have been a very very very old signal. Which would mean that who ever or what ever sent it has moved away and the signal took like hundreds of years to come to earth, but I don't know how long a radio signal can travel so I might be wrong.

That's what I thought. Might be something that sent it a very long time ago. If it's two hundred light years away, then the signal would take two hundred years to arrive. Could have been at any time in history.

Dead Metal wrote:Who knows the sender of the signal might have been clocked from view and was there as they looked.

I don't know about this one. There are other ways to tell if something is there than by seeing it. In fact, people see what they think are black holes because of what they *don't* see, just the effects that happen around it. Besides, they've been watching the sky for 30 years. At some point, they must have seen something.

Dead Metal wrote:What's up with that Alien documentary they wanted to release you know the one we saw the screen shot of a real alien peeking true a window?

I have no idea, and I'd like to know.

it probably was sent like thousands of years ago and is just now reaching us. maybe a planet was sending out a distress signal for help as their planet was about to explode. just a thought. or they were getting attacked by unicron then their exploded.

I forgot to mention but the story behind its name is a bit kooky. When they printed out the read out, some guy put WOW in the margin beside that part.

Perhaps one ship prepared communications to another, but ended up being fired upon and destroyed before any message could be sent, while the comm channel stayed open for the 75 seconds before shutting down?

I dunno. It sounds cool.